Sojourner Truth Radio

Today on Sojourner Truth: What are genetically modified mosquitoes? Who is making them and why? Find out in today's Earth Watch segment

Today on Sojourner Truth: What are genetically modified mosquitoes? Who is making them and why? Find out in today's Earth Watch segment

In 2020, COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency (PHE). Two years later, over 16 million people, including 6 million children, could potentially lose health insurance when the federal public health state of emergency (PHE) ends as soon as April 2022. We will speak to public health reporter Libby Watson about the impact this will have on millions of Americans.

Also, we will discuss the historic role of the U.S. in the Ukraine/Russia war with organizer and writer Bryce Green.

Finally, what are genetically modified mosquitos and who is making them? Find out in today's Earth Minute segment.

In 2020, COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency (PHE). Two years later, over 16 million people, including 6 million children, could potentially lose health insurance when the federal public health state of emergency (PHE) ends as soon as April 2022. We will speak to public health reporter Libby Watson about the impact this will have on millions of Americans.

Also, we will discuss the historic role of the U.S. in the Ukraine/Russia war with organizer and writer Bryce Green.

Finally, what are genetically modified mosquitos and who is making them? Find out in today's Earth Minute segment.

The world is witnessing the horrors of war live on TV including its impact on civilian populations. According to the UN there have been 636 civilian casualties and 1, 125 injured. As the war drags on, more humanitarian corridors have opened most recently in a Province in North-Eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border.

Over two million Ukrainians have fled, most are in neighboring Poland where the welcome mat has been laid out for them. There are reports however, that Black and other refugees of color fleeing the Ukraine are having a difficult time getting out of Ukraine and are being denied entrance to Poland or treated in a racist manner on the one hand by Ukrainian police and on the other hand by Polish guards.

Today we dig deeper into the crisis, with our guests, historian and Professor Gerald Horne who has recently written an article in Monthly Review on the Ukraine/Russia conflict, and scholar William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His work focuses on the arms industry and the U.S. military budget. What are the historic routes, why would a no-fly zone lead to widening the war, what has been the role of NATO and the US?

The world is witnessing the horrors of war live on TV including its impact on civilian populations. According to the UN there have been 636 civilian casualties and 1, 125 injured. As the war drags on, more humanitarian corridors have opened most recently in a Province in North-Eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border.

Over two million Ukrainians have fled, most are in neighboring Poland where the welcome mat has been laid out for them. There are reports however, that Black and other refugees of color fleeing the Ukraine are having a difficult time getting out of Ukraine and are being denied entrance to Poland or treated in a racist manner on the one hand by Ukrainian police and on the other hand by Polish guards.

Today we dig deeper into the crisis, with our guests, historian and Professor Gerald Horne who has recently written an article in Monthly Review on the Ukraine/Russia conflict, and scholar William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His work focuses on the arms industry and the U.S. military budget. What are the historic routes, why would a no-fly zone lead to widening the war, what has been the role of NATO and the US?

Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you our Friday Roundtable with our panel: Jackie Goldberg, Laura Carlsen and Dr. Gerald Horne for the hour.

We will discuss the latest news update in the Russia Ukraine tension and the arms race influencing countries to show support for either Russia or Ukraine.

We will also discuss the conservative's surmounting campaigns around the nation in states including: New Hampshire, Florida and Texas, to conceal American history through their proposal of laws that would censor teachers from including any instruction and books on factual accounts of U.S. History.

We end with a nod to Black History Month, where we will hear from our guests who have each selected a historical black leader to lift up.

Today on Sojourner Truth we bring you our Friday Roundtable with our panel: Jackie Goldberg, Laura Carlsen and Dr. Gerald Horne for the hour.

We will discuss the latest news update in the Russia Ukraine tension and the arms race influencing countries to show support for either Russia or Ukraine.

We will also discuss the conservative's surmounting campaigns around the nation in states including: New Hampshire, Florida and Texas, to conceal American history through their proposal of laws that would censor teachers from including any instruction and books on factual accounts of U.S. History.

We end with a nod to Black History Month, where we will hear from our guests who have each selected a historical black leader to lift up.

There are 1344 Superfund sites on the National Priorities List in the United States. Forty-eight additional sites have been proposed for entry on the list. For years activists have worked to draw attention to the Westlake Landfill, in MO, a superfund site, that encases a radioactive fire that is currently burning underground. The radioactive Superfund site has sat in the middle of a St. Louis Community for over 45 years leaving surface level radioactive waste to blow and be subject to all the elements.

Presently, the Westlake Landfill is experiencing an active fire deep underground. It causes waste to decompose at an accelerated rate, producing excess gas and liquid. This results in a pungent odor byproduct of this gas and liquid.

The Westlake Landfill sits in the floodplain of the Missouri River where radioactive contaminants (from the landfill?) are spreading into other neighboring communities along the river. The waste was created during World War II, when St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt Chemical Works purified all the uranium for the first nuclear weapons. The waste was eventually purchased by Cotter Corporation, then illegally dumped in north St. Louis County in 1973

The EPA classified it as a Superfund Site–a classification only given to the most polluted sites in the U.S.-- and put it on the National Priority List in 1992 30 years ago. Since then residents most impacted by the toxic waste site have organized to demand government action.

In 2018 the EPA declared plans to remove a majority of the radioactive material and ensure the safety of the surrounding community. The clean up plan intended to remove contamination by digging out waste at varying depths between 8 and 20 feet below the surface, depending on the amount of radioactivity that exists at each location.

Concerned residents continue to urge the EPA to revise and adjust their clean up plan to include the river and surrounding areas. Unhealthy levels of radium and other radioactive material remain despite these clean up efforts, resulting in constant exposure for the soil and the people living closest to the site, increasing their chances of developing lung cancers, lupus, asthma, and tumors. Advocates continue to urge the EPA to continue to clean the superfund site and make revisions to their clean up plan that take into account data reflecting current radioactive levels.

Our guest joining Sojourner Truth Radio today is Dawn Chapman, a resident who lives near the landfill who will tell us what the

EPA has done this far; the impacts of contamination on her community and discuss her ongoing advocacy work to push the EPA to clean up the West Lake site.

Dawn Chapman, runs non-profit organization “Just Moms STL, (St. Louis) working in tandem with co-founder Karen Nickel. Just Moms is an advocacy group formed with the goal of raising awareness and community engagement regarding the nearby West Lake Landfill Superfund site. Living mere miles from the landfill, Dawn became engaged in this effort in 2013 after contacting the MO Dept of Natural Resources regarding pungent odors. That call lead Dawn on an unlikely journey from housewife and mother of three to becoming an advocate, a repository of knowledge and history about this site, and even a mentor to people dealing with the impact of other Superfund sites on their own communities across the country. Dawn has collaborated with and advised local, state and federal agencies, media organizations, and both locally affected community members as well as passionate environmental advocates worldwide. She has presented to groups as widely varied as high school and college classes, church and municipal groups, the MO State Legislature, all the way up to appearing before the United Nations Human Rights and Environmental Justice division. She was also invited to present to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Her story is documented in the HBO Documentary: Atomic Homefront.

There are 1344 Superfund sites on the National Priorities List in the United States. Forty-eight additional sites have been proposed for entry on the list. For years activists have worked to draw attention to the Westlake Landfill, in MO, a superfund site, that encases a radioactive fire that is currently burning underground. The radioactive Superfund site has sat in the middle of a St. Louis Community for over 45 years leaving surface level radioactive waste to blow and be subject to all the elements.

Presently, the Westlake Landfill is experiencing an active fire deep underground. It causes waste to decompose at an accelerated rate, producing excess gas and liquid. This results in a pungent odor byproduct of this gas and liquid.

The Westlake Landfill sits in the floodplain of the Missouri River where radioactive contaminants (from the landfill?) are spreading into other neighboring communities along the river. The waste was created during World War II, when St. Louis-based Mallinckrodt Chemical Works purified all the uranium for the first nuclear weapons. The waste was eventually purchased by Cotter Corporation, then illegally dumped in north St. Louis County in 1973

The EPA classified it as a Superfund Site–a classification only given to the most polluted sites in the U.S.-- and put it on the National Priority List in 1992 30 years ago. Since then residents most impacted by the toxic waste site have organized to demand government action.

In 2018 the EPA declared plans to remove a majority of the radioactive material and ensure the safety of the surrounding community. The clean up plan intended to remove contamination by digging out waste at varying depths between 8 and 20 feet below the surface, depending on the amount of radioactivity that exists at each location.

Concerned residents continue to urge the EPA to revise and adjust their clean up plan to include the river and surrounding areas. Unhealthy levels of radium and other radioactive material remain despite these clean up efforts, resulting in constant exposure for the soil and the people living closest to the site, increasing their chances of developing lung cancers, lupus, asthma, and tumors. Advocates continue to urge the EPA to continue to clean the superfund site and make revisions to their clean up plan that take into account data reflecting current radioactive levels.

Our guest joining Sojourner Truth Radio today is Dawn Chapman, a resident who lives near the landfill who will tell us what the

EPA has done this far; the impacts of contamination on her community and discuss her ongoing advocacy work to push the EPA to clean up the West Lake site.

Dawn Chapman, runs non-profit organization “Just Moms STL, (St. Louis) working in tandem with co-founder Karen Nickel. Just Moms is an advocacy group formed with the goal of raising awareness and community engagement regarding the nearby West Lake Landfill Superfund site. Living mere miles from the landfill, Dawn became engaged in this effort in 2013 after contacting the MO Dept of Natural Resources regarding pungent odors. That call lead Dawn on an unlikely journey from housewife and mother of three to becoming an advocate, a repository of knowledge and history about this site, and even a mentor to people dealing with the impact of other Superfund sites on their own communities across the country. Dawn has collaborated with and advised local, state and federal agencies, media organizations, and both locally affected community members as well as passionate environmental advocates worldwide. She has presented to groups as widely varied as high school and college classes, church and municipal groups, the MO State Legislature, all the way up to appearing before the United Nations Human Rights and Environmental Justice division. She was also invited to present to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Her story is documented in the HBO Documentary: Atomic Homefront.